The invention relates to a regenerative chamber for a glass melting furnace having a defined cross-section, and wherein the regenerative chamber includes multiple slotted arches and above the same there are disposed transfer layers, and wherein a grating is installed on the transfer layers.
The regenerative heating of melting furnaces plays a major role in melting technology. Glass melting furnaces include, for example, two regenerative chambers. Each of these regenerative chambers provides for a grating means that is able to store heat. Using the first regenerative chamber, combustion air can be preheated up to 1300° C. Most of the time, combustion air is introduced into the melting furnace above the nozzle inlet for fossil fuels. This is, therefore, the firing side of the melting furnace. On said firing side, the fuel is mixed with the oxygen in the combustion air. The exothermic reaction of the oxygen in the combustion air with the fuel causes the raw materials (melting charge) located in the melting furnace to melt. The waste gases that are produced during the melting action of the raw materials leave the melting furnace at a temperature of approximately 1500° C. and are removed by means of a second regenerative chamber; the waste gases still have a temperature of approximately 500° C. when they leave the regenerative chamber. After a certain amount of time, the firing side is switched in order for the combustion air to be routed through the second regenerative chamber, meaning the combustion air is now routed through the regenerative chamber through which the waste gases have been routed until now.
The efficiency of the preheating of the chamber, and thereby also the heat transfer to the combustion air, depend significantly on how evenly the through-flow of the combustion air fills the cross-section of the regenerative chamber. Especially in large melting furnaces, an even through-flow is no longer ensured across the total cross-section of the chamber. Correspondingly, the waste gases and/or the combustion air flow often only through a section of the regenerative chamber—most of the time, this is only the section of the regenerative chambers that is directed away from the melting furnace. As a consequence, the heat of the waste gases is only very unevenly transferred to the grating that is disposed inside the regenerative chamber.